When it comes to J.S. Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001-1006), we are never done learning. Once you begin to play and study this timeless, awe-inspiring music, new details reveal themselves continuously, in unending layers. An intrinsic part of the violin repertoire, the collection includes Baroque dances, three fugues, and a monumental chaconne. Bach gave multi-voice counterpoint to an instrument that is primarily associated with single melodic lines. Filled with conversing voices, it is music which can be interpreted successfully in an unending variety of ways.
In this spirit, German Violinist Christian Tetzlaff has recorded the Sonatas and Partitas no less than three times; first in 1993, again in 2005, and finally in 2017 for the Ondine label. Tetzlaff does not believe that his approach has changed radically, but only that the music has become freer with time.
“I think we live in wonderful times when it comes to these pieces,” Tetzlaff told Strings Magazine. He observes that, following a period of neglect, they were initially dismissed as technical “exercise works.” Then, they were put on a pedestal and approached,
in a grandiose, big-sounding way. I can only say how sad it is that the moments of dancing and weeping and laughing seem to be missing. How could these be absent when you’re playing the most communicative music on the planet? Now, though, we see Bach as a living, deep soul who speaks to us—and we have the tools to perform these pieces with strong emotions, with a speaking quality that tells their narrative.
Christian Tetzlaff performed the beautiful, intimate Largo from the C Major Sonata as an encore last June at Frankfurt’s Rheingau Musik Festival 2024:
Recordings
- J.S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001-1006), Christian Tetzlaff Amazon
Whoever said we are all petty amateurs in comparison to Great Master Bach speaks for every musician and composer out there. The more deeply you know music, the more you understand this basic truth. Bach stands above all.
Gorgeous video performance. How can we be so lucky to have such beauty streamed into our personal devices?